Athena: Local-First Code Auditing and Verified Release Notes with Open-Weight AI

Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle

Athena is an open-source, local-first Git & AST change-intelligence engine and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server built for the Hacktoberfest 2026 - Side Hustle Challenge.

Every developer and engineering team faces the same dread on release day:

I built Athena to turn raw Git history and multi-language syntax trees into structured, mathematically verified change intelligence without ever sending your code to closed third-party cloud APIs.

Athena is built for engineering teams, freelancers, and companies building in regulated environments:

The Side Hustle Model: An open-core CLI and MCP server for solo developers, paired with an automated GitHub Action bot ($19/month solo / $79/month team) that audits every Pull Request and posts blast-radius warnings directly in PR reviews.

Athena can inspect any local Git repository (pass. for your current directory, or a path to a project). You can also run python examples/create_demo_repo.py to generate an instant sandbox repo with sample commits, breaking changes, and documentation drift.

python -m athena breaking-changes. --base v1.0.0 --target v2.0.0 Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Found 1 breaking change requiring human review: [CRITICAL] calculate_metrics (function) Location: src/core/calculator.py:42 Change: Non-optional parameter 'weights' was added to public function Evidence: commit 4a8b21c: "feat: add weights support to metrics calculation" Suggested SemVer Bump: MAJOR Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 2. Assessing Caller Blast Radius python -m athena analyze. --base v1.0.0 --target HEAD Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Analysis Summary: - Commits analyzed: 12 commits between v1.0.0 and HEAD - Files modified: 8 (Python: 5, TypeScript: 2, Markdown: 1) - AST Symbol changes: 3 modified signatures, 1 deprecated export - Downstream callers affected: 4 internal callers identified Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 3. Generating Evidence-Verified Release Notes python -m athena release-notes. --base v1.0.0 --target v2.0.0 --version "v2.0.0" Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode # Release Notes - v2.0.0 ## Potential Breaking Changes - `calculate_metrics`: Parameter `weights` added without a default value in `src/core/calculator.py` ( [ commit:4a8b21c ]( https://github.com/aaryanrwt/athena ) ) ## What's Changed - Added async worker queue execution engine in `src/engine/worker.py` ( [ commit:7d9e10f ]( https://github.com/aaryanrwt/athena ) ) - Refactored export interfaces in TypeScript client ( [ commit:b12c40e ]( https://github.com/aaryanrwt/athena ) ) ## Documentation Drift - `docs/api_guide.md` references the old 2-argument signature for `calculate_metrics` Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 4.

Interactive AI Editor Integration (MCP Server) Add Athena to your claude_desktop_config.json or Cursor settings:

{ "mcpServers": { "athena": { "command": "python", "args": [ "-m", "athena", "mcp" ] } } } Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Now your AI editor can directly query Athena for verified blast radiuses and breaking-change assessments before suggesting code edits.

The entire engine is open-source under the MIT license:

Local-First, Evidence-Backed Git & AST Release-Readiness and Change-Intelligence MCP Server